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Worried About Things?

If you're worried about current problems, difficulties, or issues, remember these words that a wise older Christian once gave me:

"This too shall pass."

Love: Fantasy vs Reality

School vs Reality

Wen I was growing up, I had one very good teacher in fourth grade who used to, on occasion, tell us things that students of other teachers might not get to hear.  She was an honest young teacher... perhaps honest to a fault.  Perhaps she had Asperger syndrome?

Anyway, this teacher would tell us from time to time that she was teaching us how life is supposed to be, not how it really is.  That would come up from time to time when one of us questioned why something occurred in the news that didn't seem to be in violation of the American principals the school directed her to teach us.

From time to time, this teacher would complain about how the school wouldn't let her teach us the things she had learned.  On one occasion, she told us about a little acid trip, but said it was NoDoz that caused the unusual visions she described.  She warned us not to take NoDoz.

Being that this was a very conservative school in East Texas, this teacher was pretty brave to try to teach us about many of the things she did.  The point of me telling you this is that most of the students didn't catch that she was teaching us how things "should" be and not how they really were. 

I often pondered what this teacher had said.  I often pondered her.  Did I say she was hot?  I pondered some of the occasional things that she threw out from her college studies that were so different from the God Bless America, bless our troops, support the war in Viet Nam rah rah propaganda that we were being taught.  She didn't slip often, but I was quite aware when she did.  Those things always stuck in the back of my mind and never really came to the forefront until I got into college myself, then all the things she had said came together.

I remember when the end of the school year came.  I had grown quite fond of her.  I was genuinely sad when I had to go on to the next grade.  I was too young, then, but I would have loved to have... oh never mind.

Some of my school mates who didn't go on to college never understood that the world wasn't the way they were taught in grade school.  Some of them, to this day, haven't looked any farther than "all the crap they learned in high school" to paraphrase a line from Paul Simon's "Kodachrome."

What is the problem with this?  They want to enforce those unrealistic "should bes" on us by law and by force.  They'll scream about being American, but don't think of what liberty and justice really is.  They want everyone to do things their way so they can all have the kind of "liberty" THEY want and spout that if you don't like their idea of "liberty," then you should leave.  It's sort of like they haven't graduated from the kindergarten of life.

Verse of the Day

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (New International Version)

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.

This 'n' That

Today I finally got my mom to come over to figure out where she wanted me to store what and we got some more done on the house.  I also got someone on Freecycle to come pick up all the old computers and monitors.  I still have to haul more out to the shed, but it's wearing on my back today, so I'll continue tomorrow.

Once we get all the junk out of here, I'll start ripping up the carpet and repairing the floors.  I'll go back with tile instead of carpet so that it's easier to clean if the dogs come in.  I was going to go get some treated plywood today, but my back is too sore to mess with it.  I can't put it in today, anyway.  There's still quite a bit to move.

I'm trying an electronic cigarette to see if that can help me cut back on my smoking and smoking expense.  So far, it's worked pretty well.  I haven't lit up one cigar since I've been smoking this.  It doesn't quite give the same pleasure as smoking a quality cigar and the liquid sometimes gets in your mouth, but it does seem to be an acceptable and less hazardous replacement.

I got to talk to Strawberry for a while on Skype today.  It was good to see her.  Her boy, who has Asperger's syndrome, had to come home from school early today because he was crying.  I'm going to look into Aspurger's syndrome a little more and see if I can understand the treatments.  There is no cure or medication for the disease, but some drugs are used to treat the symptoms.  The treatment is primarily communication and social skills training with cognative behavior therapy.

After watching a few videos on Asperger's and reading some of the well known medical sites on the syndrome, I'm not so sure that I don't have it myself.  My prolific blogging is my attempt to overcome my problems with communications skills.   

Since Blogger doesn't seem to have an import feature for YouTube and doesn't seem to allow the html code, here are a few links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=233-3jtEZck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAtC6jPW28U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAUV4RZPN9k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbgUjmeC-4o

Tomorrow

Tomorrow

I've become so weary
And my life does seem so dreary
Although there is a small twinkle of light

Do I go on trying
Or give in to the belying
Knowing that I HAVE fought the good fight?

Perhaps I should be sleeping
Not just let these thoughts keep creeping
For tomorrow always is another day

And hope that some will listen
Though the icicles still glisten
For tonight I will get on my knees and pray

Copyright © 2009 Cal Jennings